Cement-block machine



Patented Oct. 28, 1924.

NITED' STATES HERMAN BE SSER AND JESSE H. BESS ER, OF ALPENA, MICHIGAN.

CEMENT-BLOCK MACHINE.

Application filed August 4, 1923. Serial No. 655,648.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HERMAN BESSER and Jnssn H. Bnssnn, residents of thecity of Alpena, in the county of Alpena and State of Michigan, andcitizens of the United States, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Cement-Block Machines, of which the following is aspecification.

Our invention relates to cement block machines and more especially tothe class in which removable cores and plates are actuated toward andfrom the mold, certain of these plates being used both at the ends ofthe mold and, when it is desired to divide the same into a plurality ofblocks, at an intermediate point, the plates being removable withcertain of the cores.

It is an object of our invention to operate the various cores and platesby a single hand lever which heretofore has necessitated the removal ofall parts at one time thus requiring great strength and labor inactuation, as well as tending to injure the product in the mold. Inovercoming these disadvantages, it is our purpose to operate thesedevices by the usual single lever but, by the provision of certainconnecting elements, start the withdrawal of the various core and plateunits automatically at predetermined intervals, so that a part only ofsaid units are started in said withdrawal at one time.

It is a further object of our machine to actuate the core plungers bymeans of a common transverse bar having apertures or slots of differentsizes for receiving therein the ends of pins fixed to the plungers, sothat, as the bar moves, these pins and with them the cores and plateswill be actuated at different intervals.

We attain these and other objects of our invention by the constructionhereinafter claimed and described, and illustrated in the drawings inwhieh- Figure 1 is a plan view of our invention, showing the cores andplungers in their advanced position, and with the top plate re moved;

Figure 9. is a view similar to Fig. 1, but with the cores withdrawn;

. Figure 3 is a side elevation of the. machine;

Figure 4 is a longitudinal section as shown along the line 4:4 of Fig.1,and

Figure 5 is aperspective view of adouble block formed by our machine.

Referring to the structure in detail, similar reference charactersdesignating like parts throughout the specification and drawlugs,represents the frame in general, the same being of quite usualconstruction, suitable side, end, and cross pieces being used to supportthe mold walls and actuating means for the cores and dividing plates, 11designates a swinging plate, usually metal, pivoted to the frame at 12,andheld vertical during the block formation, but providing for swingingdownward to horizontal position as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3whenthe blocks are to be released. Upon the bench plate 13 is supportedrip-standing posts 14 bearing above them the cross plate 15 which servesas the base for the mold cavity. V l

Upon the outer edge of 15 is removably supported the pallet 16 which inturn is supported in position at the back by the plate 11. Since theparts 11 and 13 to 16 may swing together on a common pivot 12, it isevident that in the lowered position, ,as shown in Fig. .3. the formedblocks will rest upon the pallet which may be removed manually carryingthe blocks with it. The rear plate of the mold cavity is represented bythe part 17 which is fixed to the frame at either side of the machine,and is apertured to receive there-through the cores 18 and plates 19. Itwill be noted that the end plates 19 are secured to half cores 20 whilethe intermediate plate 19 is usually formed integral with the centralcore 21, so that by this construction two blocks may be formed by theuse of three plates. two half cores and three full size cores. Ofcourse, the machine may be expanded to produce a larger number of blocksat the same time by the use of more dividing plates; and the number ofhollow spaces within each block increased by multiplying the number ofcores used.

These cores and plates are .quite securely attached to the ends ofplungers 22 which extend rearwardly for connection with a commonactuating mechanism. As the plungers are withdrawn, the cores are pulledback through the apertures 24 of the plate, 17, so'that the moldedblocks are ready for removal. It will be. apparent that quite strongforce is required to start'withdrawal of a plurality of cores andplates-especially of five or more cores and three plates, as areillustrated in this case. This is due to the molding of the plasticmaterial about I difference between the size of follow in order.

hollow but have one closed end '23 to which the plungers 22 may besecured, and said closure 23 is apertured at 25 to provide for entranceof to fill the vacuum otherwise caused by withdrawal of the core; then,means are provided for withdrawing the cores at different times withintervals between successive :actuations, though suchintermittentactuation is caused by a common source of energy, as will be laterexplained. The end half-cores 20 are also hollow and provided with thevent opening 25 as well as the others, and are integral withthe endplates 19, but are otherwise like th cores 18. The central core 21 isinto, with the plate 19 which is divided and secured above and below tothe core as fins, in the manner illustrated in the drawings.

For actuating the cores, the following mechanism is provided:Arbell-craulr lever 26 pivoted to the frame part 13- at 27. the latterbeing a transverse rock shaft to which is keyed the said lever at oneend, and actuating arm 28 at the. other. Upon the upper side of theframe 10 above the plungers is shown a transverse bar 29 suitably guidedfor movement in direction longitudinal of the plungers 22. This bar hasseries of apertures 30, 31 and which receive loosely therethrough pins33 car-ried by the plungers, sothat movement of the baractuates thevarious plungers and cores'but at different times. The arm 34 ofthe-lever and the arm 28 are operatively connected respectively to theends of the said bar 29, by links 35 so that force applied to the leverwill slide the 'plungers 22 in their guides and thereby actuate thecores in withdrawal from the; chamber as well as in inserting them whenpreparing for new molding operation. It is noted in this connection,that the pins 33 are smaller than apertures 31 and 32,'a nd that 31 issmaller than 32, so. that beginning the actuation of the lever 26 fromthe position of he parts as shown in Fig. 1, the aperture 30 will move tas parts '21 and 19* first, and the cores 18 and 20 will receive noimpulse until core 21 has moved some'little distance depending on theapertures 30, 31 and32. After bar 29 has moved a short distance, cores18 will begin rearward movement, and later cores 20 and plates 19 will/Vhen all'the cores and platesha've been withdrawn, they will take therelative position shown in Fig. 2. As the lever is moved to push thecores forward, for another molding operation the same relative movementof the p'lungers will occur but in the reverse direction. At the closeof this movement, the forward ends of all the cores and plates will b inalinement V and substantially in contact with, the pallet 16'as shown inFig. 1.

It will be obvious that when once the core is starte'dfin its rearwardmovement, there is much less diihculty in continuing the withdrawal'fromthe pasty mass of material in which they are imbedded; so-that ifonce the rearward movement of the cores can be well established, littledifficulty is experienced-in fully withdrawing them. -For this reason,it is only necessaryto provide the apertures referred toas illustrated.so that it will not be required to start all the plungers and cores atone time. it has been found byactual experiment, that the terval betweenthe successive impulses exerted on the differentrplungers may not, bevery large to attain the r esult desired. If, however. a greaterdifference in the time of starting should be found essential orexpedient, the said apertures, shown in these views as circles should bechanged to elongated slots extending in the direction of the length ofthe plungers, so that agreater difference in time interval would-beattained. While the slotted transverse bar and pin structure has beenshown, and has been found exceedingly practical inuse,fma,n imodifications of such arrangement will occur to one skilled in the art,nowthattho general idea of the actuation is disclosed. For example, thebar '29' may itself carry? vertical pins, and the plungers provided withside blocks attached thereto against which the pins would hear as thebar is movedrearwa-rdly. It will also at once be obvious that thereverse arrangement of slots and pins shown in Figs. 1 and 2inay beused, the pins being carriedv by the bar. and the slots or aperturesbeing drilled through the p-lungers. It will be readily understood thatthese. and other changes inthe relative arrangement and construe tion ofthe various parts of our improved block machine can be made andsubstituted for those herein shown and described, with out departingfrom the spirit-ref our in ventio-n, the scope of which is set forth inthe appended claims.

eclaim:

I 1. A cement block. machine having a mold chamber, cores movable intoand out from said chamber, a. supporting frame, a swinging memberpivoted to said frame, and means connected with said member wherebycontinuous movement of said member in either direction will actuate theseveral cores in a predetermined succession. V

2. A cement blockmachine having a mold chamber the rear wall of saidchamber having a plurality of aligned openings, cores fitting saidopenings and movable therethrough into and out of said chamber, saidcores being hollow and having one closed end provided with a ventaperture, a supporting frame, a swinging member pivoted to said frameand means connected with said member for actuating the several cores ina predetermined succession.

3. A cement block machine having a mold chamber and cores movable intoand out of said chamber, said cores being hollow and having one closedend, said end having a vent aperture through the closure, a supportingframe, slidable plungers guided in said frame and fixed at-one end tothe closed ends of the cores, a bell-crank lever pivoted on the side ofsaid frame and means connected with one arm of said lever for actuatingthe several plungers and thereby the cores in a predeterminedsuccession.

at. In a cement block machine having a mold chamber, the combination ofa series of cores movable into and out of said chamber in lateralalignment, slidable plungers each fixed to a core, means for guiding theplungers in their longitudinal movement, protuberances on said plungersfor actuating them, a supporting frame, a transverse rock shaft pivotedin said frame, a lever keyed to said shaft, for rocking the latter, andmeans connected with said shaft and contacting said protuberances foractuating the several cores in predetermined succession.

5. In a cement block machine having a mold chamber and cores movableinto and from said chamber, the combination with slidable plungers eachfixed to a corresponding core, and means for guiding the bars andthereby the cores in the same direction as the latter, a frame forsupporting the said chamber, cores and plungers, a lever pivoted on theside of said frame, means connecting one end of said lever to saidtransverse bar for actuating the latter, and means connecting theplungers with said transverse bar whereby the several plungers will bemoved in a predetermined succession.

6. In a cement block machine having a mold chamber, the combination of aseries of cores movable into and out from said chamber in lateralalignment, vertical plates integral with the end cores, a dividing platefixed to one of the intermediate cores, slidable plungers each fixed toa core and guided for longitudinal movement, a supporting frame, atransverse bar adjacent the plungers and slidable toward and from saidchamber a lever pivoted on the side of said frame, means connecting theplungers with said transverse bar whereby the continuous operation ofthe lever in either direction will first actuate the core and dividingplate, after an appreciable interval will start the operation of theintermediate cores and last of all the end cores'and plates andthereafter continue the movement of all the cores and plates together asa unit.

7. In acement block machine having a mold chamber and cores movable intoand from said chamber, the combination with slidable plungers each fixedto a corresponding core and means for guiding the plungers in theirlongitudinal movement, of a transverse bar adjacent the plungers andmovable in the same direction as the latter, and having a plurality ofapertures there-through of different size, there being an apertureadjacent each plunger, a frame for supporting said chamber, cores andplungers, and a lever pivoted on the side of said frame, meansconnecting one end of said lever to said transverse bar for actuatingthe latter, and means fixed to the plungers and extending looselythrough the said apertures in the transverse bar whereby movement of thelever will operate the several plungers and thereby the cores inpredetermined succes sion.

8. In a cement block machine having a mold chamber and cores movableinto and from said chamber, the combination with slidable plungers eachfixed to a corresponding core and means for guiding the plungers intheir longitudinal movement, of a transverse bar adjacent theplungersand movable in the same direction as the latter, and having a pluralityof apertures therethrough of different size, there being an apertureadjacent each plunger, a frame for supporting said chamber, cores andplungers, a transverse rock shaft pivoted in said frame, an arm keyed tosaid shaft at one end and a lever at the other, links connecting one endof said lever and the arm to the ends of said transverse bar foractuating the latter, and pins secured to the plungers and extendingloosely through the said apertures in the transverse bar wherebymovement of the lever will operate the several plungers and thereby thecores in predetermined succession.

In testimony whereof we hereunto affix our signatures HERMAN BESSER.JESSE H. BESSER.

